Waning Crescent Moon
Waning Crescent MoonImage credit: NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center Scientific Visualization Studio.(large image)

Waning Crescent in Aries

Waning Crescent on . The illuminated surface of the moon is 20% and getting smaller. The lunar cycle is 25 days old.

Moonrise and moonset

The moon rises after midnight to early morning and sets in the afternoon. It is visible in the early morning low to the east.

Moon phases on nearby dates

Slide horizontally to discover the moon phase on nearby dates.

Upcoming main moon phases

Main moon phases of the following lunar cycle.

Moon phase and lunation details

Moon in ♈ Aries

Moon is passing about ∠19° of ♈ Aries tropical zodiac sector.

2 days after Last Quarter

Previous main lunar phase is the Last Quarter before 2 days on 30 May 2024 at 17:13.

Strawberry Moon after 19 days

Next Full Moon is the Strawberry Moon of June 2024 after 19 days on 22 June 2024 at 01:08.

Neap tide

There is low ocean tide on this date. Sun and Moon gravitational forces are not aligned, but meet at big angle, so their combined tidal force is weak.

Apparent angular diameter ∠1965"

Lunar disc appears visually 3.8% wider than solar disc. Moon and Sun apparent angular diameters are ∠1965" and ∠1892".

Lunation 301 / 1254

The Moon is 25 days old and navigating from the second to the final part of the current synodic month. This is lunation 301 of Meeus index or 1254 from Brown series.

Synodic month length 29.39 days

The length of this lunation is 29 days, 9 hours and 16 minutes and it is 1 hour and 4 minutes shorter than the upcoming lunation's length. The lengths of the following synodic months are going to increase with the lunar orbit true anomaly getting closer to the value it has at the point of New Moon at apogee (∠180°).

Lunation length shorter than mean

The length of the current synodic month is 3 hours and 28 minutes shorter than the mean synodic month length. It is 2 hours and 41 minutes longer compared to 21st century's shortest synodic month length.

Lunar orbit details for

True anomaly ∠36°

The true anomaly of the Moon orbit at the beginning of this lunation cycle is ∠36° and at the beginning of the next lunar synodic month the true anomaly is going to be ∠60.7°.

Moon at perigee

Moon is at perigee at 07:23 about 15 days since last apogee on 17 May 2024 at 19:00 in ♍ Virgo the lunar orbit is going to widen while the Moon is moving away from the Earth over the upcoming 12 days until point of next apogee on 14 June 2024 at 13:36 in ♍ Virgo.

Distance to Moon 368 108 km

This perigee Moon is 368 108 km (228 732 mi) away from Earth. It is 5 600 km closer than the mean perigee distance, but it is still 2 248 km further than the closest perigee of 21st century.

Moon in ascending node

Moon is in ascending node in ♈ Aries at 03:08 crossing the ecliptic from South to North. Lunar position remains north of if for the upcoming 13 days until Moon's next descending node later on 15 June 2024 at 20:17 in ♎ Libra.

Moon before northern standstill

7 days since the last southern standstill on 25 May 2024 at 19:58 in ♐ Sagittarius when the Moon has reached South declination of ∠-28.401° the lunar orbit is extending northward over the next 5 days to face maximum declination of ∠28.365° at the point of next northern standstill on 7 June 2024 at 16:40 in ♊ Gemini.

New draconic month

At 03:08 in the point ot ascending node the Moon is completing the last draconic month and is entering a new one while the lunar orbit is crossing the ecliptic from South to North.

Syzygy in 4 days

In 4 days on 6 June 2024 at 12:38 in ♊ Gemini the Moon is going to be in a New Moon geocentric conjunction with the Sun and thus forming the next Sun-Moon-Earth syzygy alignment.

Lunar calendar

Sources and credits

Parts of this Lunar Calendar are based on Planetary Ephemeris Data Courtesy of Fred Espenak, www.Astropixels.com

Moon phase image credit to NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center Scientific Visualization Studio, svs.gsfc.nasa.gov